Line #92 Main/AllDeathsFinal


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3	%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Take care to put your example in its proper place in accordance with Administrivia/HowToAlphabetizeThings!
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6
7	->''"None cometh from thence\
8	That he may tell us how they fare.\
9	Lo, no man taketh his goods with him.\
10	Yea, none returneth again that is gone thither."''
11	-->-- "The Song of the Harp-Player", {{Ancient Egypt}}ian poem found inscribed on a tomb.
12
13	In some settings, even Magic and/or AppliedPhlebotinum can't bring back the dead. Sure, it can stop time, create energy, fly, or otherwise prevent death in the first place, but trying to restore life to a dead body is out of the question (and likely forbidden anyway, just to make sure). Expect the EccentricMentor to go into full-tilt grim mode if someone even remotely mentions the subject.
14
15	The fact that it can't (or shouldn't) be done also makes it an [[ForbiddenFruit excellent]] MacGuffin: It's pretty common for an idealistic hero grieving over the death of a friend or loved one to search out ways to bring them back -- and usually give up after deciding that [[FantasticAesop the dead are not meant to be resurrected]]; if they don't, something usually [[CameBackWrong goes wrong]], like [[MonsterFromBeyondTheVeil something else coming back instead]]. Much like ReedRichardsIsUseless, this is usually an AuthorsSavingThrow against trivializing death in a world where it would otherwise be a minor inconvenience. {{Reincarnation}} may or may not be possible, but if it is then it's closer to the Buddhist conception of the idea: the previous and future lives are functionally different people who are linked by a metaphysical process, not the same person in a different body.
16
17	This doesn't mean that every character ''assumed'' dead is, in fact, dead, even when NoOneCouldSurviveThat Even in works that manifest this trope, it's possible that someone is [[DisneyDeath only seemingly dead at the moment]], that others NeverFoundTheBody, that ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated, that the AlmostDeadGuy who was LeftForDead pulled through offscreen, or that someone was FakingTheDead outright. But [[FinallyFoundTheBody when a body]] ''[[FinallyFoundTheBody is]]'' [[FinallyFoundTheBody found]], the only way you're going to see that character again will be as a PosthumousCharacter.
18
19	Of course, even this doesn't trump the FirstLawOfResurrection.
20
21	Compare HealingMagicIsTheHardest, contrast DeathIsCheap. See KilledOffForReal for when this is applied to ''individual'' deaths (where resurrection in general could otherwise happen).Contrast DeaderThanDead where only certain types of death are final, and OpeningACanOfClones for when significant events, such as death, can be easily undone. See FinalDeathMode, {{Permadeath}}, and SingleAttemptGame for the video game versions. Not to be confused with EveryoneDiesEnding.
22
23	Needless to say, this trope is TruthInTelevision and works set in mundane worlds without magic or "sufficiently advanced" technology [[LikeRealityUnlessNoted needn't be mentioned]].
24
25	!!As this is a {{Death Trope\|s}}, [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff unmarked spoilers abound]]. [[Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned Beware]].
26	----
27	!!Examples:
28
29	[[foldercontrol]]
30
31	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
32	* ''Manga/AfterGod'': Despite all Gods bragging how they "can do anything", when Waka asks if Shion can be brought to life, they can't, which is why she prefers them to die themselves.
33	* ''Manga/AkameGaKill'' hits all the notes: Idealistic hero, grim mentor, etc. The Teigu characters wield might be powerful, but there is not one that can bring back the dead. The only thing that comes remotely close is Kurome's sword, Yatsufusa, which can control the dead as zombie puppets.
34	* ''Manga/BungoStrayDogs'' has several abilities related to life and death, but none of them can actually revive someone who has already died. Yosano can heal anyone close to death, and Odasaku can forsee his own death and avert it, but so far there has not been any way to revive someone who has previously died. The Book makes it appear like the dead can be revived, but what it is actually doing is creating an alternate timeline where that person never died in the first place. This is actually the plot to one of the novels, BEAST. At first it looks like it's an AU novel, but it's actually a part of the main canon because of how The Book was used to make it.
35	* Played with in ''Manga/CanEvenAMobHighschoolerLikeMeBeANormieIfIBecomeAnAdventurer''. The human adventurers certainly die for keeps. Any unnamed monster who is summoned to do battle and dies, stays dead, and the card they were summoned from is destroyed. A [Named] monster, however, can be brought back by sacrificing monster card(s) of the same species.
36	* ''Manga/ChainsawMan'': For humans. Demons reincarnate in hell after they are killed unless they are [[DeaderThanDead eaten by the Chainsaw Devil]], though the new Devil is essentially a new personality with the memories of the original. Both Demons and Hybrids have [[NighInvulnerability incredible regenerative powers]]. But human characters are completely mortal, underpinned by the incredible mortality rate of Devil Hunters. The closest the series comes to an aversion is when Pochita revives a dismembered Denji by fusing with him, though since this happened immediately post-mortem it's unclear if hybridization is possible after complete brain necrosis since 'something' of the human has to remain in order to make the [[MagicallyBindingContract contract]].
37	* Creator/{{CLAMP}}
38	** This is one rule CLAMP has set in stone for their series. Even in a world like ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle,'' where you have otherwise massively powerful magic at work. In fact, the denizens of that world attempting to break said rule is what kicks off the massive GambitPileup. The breaking of this rule during the ''Tsubasa'' NonSerialMovie was a factor in their abandonment of the original anime adaptation.
39	** In ''Manga/{{xxxholic}}'', there's no coming back from the dead, but having your RealityWarper boyfriend convince the universe to ignore your death and proceed normally achieves a similar effect. In that case it's relatively temporary, lasting about a thousand years, give or take.
40	* ''Manga/DeathNote'':
41	** This is one of the rules of the Death Note. In the end of the manga, while Light is begging Ryuk to save him from death, Ryuk says that there is no way to do it. The last page (as a follow-up to a previous statement) says, "Once they are dead, they can never come back to life." This is because it's hard to come back once [[CessationOfExistence you stop existing.]]
42	** Subverted in the pilot manga chapter. Taro is absolutely distraught by the fact that he's killed people, and Ryuk offers him the [[ResetButton Death Eraser.]] It has the power to bring back any Death Note victims, but not people who died or were otherwise killed, but weren't Death Note victims, provided their names had been written down in the past year. Taro takes to it. The Death Eraser is not even so much as ''mentioned'' in the main series so, naturally, it shows up in many a FixFic as well.
43	* While Miranda Lotto's Innocence power in ''Manga/DGrayMan'' allows her to turn back time (which doubles as a healing ability as she can turn back time on recent injuries), she can't use it to bring back the dead. Not that the revived person would stay alive for long if she could, as everything returns to normal after she deactivates it (she can, however, keep a person alive after they suffer a fatal injury in the meantime).
44	* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'':
45	** In the first two series, Digimon could return to Primary Village upon their death to be reconfigured, but there was a time where this village was inactive, and so any Digimon killed during this time were unable to be reborn until the village was restored. ''However'', any Digimon that died in the real world died for good. Part of the motivation of [[FallenHero Maki]] in ''Anime/DigimonAdventureTri'' was to try to reverse this. It took ''rebooting the entire Digital World'' to do so, and it didn't matter anyway because her partner Digimon doesn't remember her.
46	** ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' differs from the previous two series in this respect. There is no village where data forms into eggs, loose data won't sometimes coalesce into ghosts, and absorbing another Digimon's data only makes you stronger (and, in some cases, gives you access to their attacks) and doesn't allow the previous mon to live on inside you. So when Digimon die, they die for good.
47	** ''Anime/DigimonDataSquad'': Though Digimon effectively turn back into eggs immediately upon dying, [[DeathOfPersonality they are reborn as new people without any knowledge of their former lives.]] The only exception seems to exist with partner Digimon who have a strong connection with their humans. However, a straight example exists in the victims of Kurata's Gizmon, artificial Digimon whose beams cause their victims to be permanently deleted when struck by them.
48	* ''Franchise/FullmetalAlchemist''
49	** Human transmutation -- trying to bring back dead people through Alchemy -- is forbidden. The whole [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist manga]] is kicked off when the protagonists try to bring someone back and have a close encounter with Truth as a result. The end result: Truth [[EquivalentExchange takes Al, and Ed's leg, in payment]] for returning [[BodyHorror a barely functional organ pile]] (which, as it turns out, wasn't even derived from the deceased - bringing people back from the dead ''really is'' impossible). Things taken by Truth do not count as 'dead', however, and Ed is able to retrieve Al's soul by sacrificing his arm for it.
50	** It gets a bit more complicated. Al wasn't just "payment". Al's body was taken by Truth, but since a soul cannot be created with alchemy, Al's soul was put into the thing that was created. The transmutation that took Ed's arm was used to transfer the soul into a more stable host, the armor.
51	** ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'' further compounds this: Each time an alchemist performs human transmutation, what comes back evolves into a Homunculus - the deceased brought back by human transmutation, just... [[CameBackWrong not totally themselves]]. Also, Alphonse managed to bring Edward, who had just been killed by Envy, back from the dead using himself as the philosopher's stone. Ed managed to bring Alphonse back using himself and ended up in our world instead of dead while Alphonse was brought back with his human body... It can be said that the whole 2003 anime is Ed and Al learned exactly what level of EquivalentExchange is required to return life to the dead - an exchange of body, mind and soul, a full human being for a full human being.
52	* ''Literature/HowNotToSummonADemonLord'': Sakamoto Takuma plays a video game called ''Cross Reverie'', where resurrection spells are common. Then, he gets summoned to a fantasy world that resembles the game as his character, Diablo. While this world resembles the game in many aspects, he discovers resurrection spells don't exist (or the inhabitants have never heard of them) and the dead stay dead.
53	* ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'':
54	** Despite the highly advanced [[{{Magitek}} magic and technology]] of the setting, if a person is dead, they stay dead. You could try to make a clone of them and stuff their mind with memories, but all you'll get is [[ClonesArePeopleToo a lookalike that has their own individual personality.]] The closest thing to a resurrection in the franchise were the Dark Pieces in ''[[VideoGame/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAsPortable Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny]]'', which were {{Virtual Ghost}}s that could only stick around long enough to come to terms with their death and clean up some UnfinishedBusiness.
55	** The {{Reincarnation}} in ''Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid'' is explicitly mentioned to just be a case of [[GeneticMemory someone inheriting their ancestor's memories]], rather than the continued existence of said ancestor. The only ones who could come back to from the dead are the various {{Ridiculously Human\|Robots}} {{Magitek}} Programs of the Book of Darkness, who have ResurrectiveImmortality as part of their schtick--they are not so much "resurrected" as restored from the latest backup.
56	** The BigBad of the original anime, ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' seeks to defy this trope. Whether she actually had any chance of success is unclear, but the method she was trying to use was something the heroes had to stop because it ran the risk of causing severe multiversal damage just to ''maybe'' bring back ''one person''. [[BigBad Precia]] was too crazy to care about the risk.
57	* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'':
58	** Stands have incredible power, but one hard rule is that they cannot raise the dead. They can [[GoodThingYouCanHeal cure wounds so grievous it's amazing there's anything left to cure]], and they can bring you back from the very brink of death. But once the soul departs, there is not and never will be a Stand that can undo this. The closest they can get is turning back time to undo the death in the first place, and even the extremely rare Stand with that power has massive limitations to what it can do.
59	** Joseph Joestar in ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'' subverts this. Although it uses a case of ArtisticLicenseBiology, he is able to be revived by Jotaro courtesy of the doctors from the Speedwagon Foundation and Dio's body being used to transfuse back the blood that was stolen from him. Although his soul had departed his body, it was in a good enough condition that the wounds could be treated. He had also only been dead for four minutes by the time he was carted into the ambulance. Because Jotaro was able to use Star Platinum as a sort of heart massage to make the blood flow, this allowed his soul to return to his body now that it was sustainable for life.
60	** The ability to come back from the dead or rather the brink of death seems to be dependent upon the willpower and resolve of the individual's soul. As in ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Diamond is Unbreakable]]'', when Okuyasu died, he had a GoIntoTheLight experience but turned back at the behest of his brother and his own resolve. It also helps that Josuke healed his wounds within a short amount of time as well.
61	** ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind Golden Wind]]'': In the case of Bruno Bucciarati, while all of this applies, he was still unable to truly come back from death courtesy of the Stand [[YouCantFightFate Rolling Stones]] which had predicted his death. While his soul had the resolve to return to his body after Giorno healed it, he didn't so much come back to life as much as become a RevenantZombie. He didn't so much inhabit his body as much as pilot it, and the body itself broke down as if it were dead.
62	* ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'' falls into the latter category of this trope; [[SacrificialRevivalSpell using magic to bring the dead back automatically kills the caster upon success.]]
63	* ''Manga/RaveMaster'': Unlike Creator/HiroMashima's [[Manga/FairyTail following series]], everyone who dies in ''Rave Master'' remains dead. There are death fakeouts, but no one ever comes back to life.
64	* In ''Manga/TowardTheTerra'', the Mu can read thoughts, perform astonishing feats of telekinesis, fly through space unaided, teleport, and do all manner of fantastical mutant stuff. But once a character is dead, they are ''dead''.
65	[[/folder]]
66
67	[[folder:Comic Books]]
68	* Supposedly, this was true for Franchise/TheDCU following the events of ''ComicBook/BlackestNight''. It didn't last.
69	* At least in principle, in ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'', ''physical'' death is permanent. Elves can still make contact with their dead through the Palace and endless flashbacks.
70	%% The whole point of the ''Comicbook/{{Hellblazer}}'' story ''Son of Man''.
71	* ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'' has super-powered characters with insane durability, and a character called the Immortal who lives up to his title. But if anyone else dies, that's that.
72	* When Creator/JoeQuesada took over as Editor-in-Chief of Creator/MarvelComics, he instituted a "Dead means dead" policy. It didn't last very long because, by his own admission, it was like closing the gate after all the horses have already escaped. And one of his first acts was to try to retcon Gwen Stacy back into ComicBook/SpiderMan, before the writer rebelled.
73	* ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'' had this as company policy from the outset, the only exceptions being when resurrection was an integral part of the character (vampires, for example, were explicitly exempt). While the rule has not been universally followed, ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'' has [[KilledOffForReal genuinely killed off]] several fan favorite characters.
74	* Comicbook/UltimateMarvel
75	** The Ultimate Marvel universe has the same "Dead means Dead" rule as the normal one does, only this one sticks to the rule. Every hero and villain that has been killed off, stays dead. The only exceptions are:
76	*** Valkryie. She was actually revived by Thor, but got killed again by Loki right after her resurrection, so she got officially {{Ret Gone}}d.
77	*** Gwen Stacy. Her ''clone'' was created, with the DNA and all exact memories as the real Gwen Stacy, so she's kinda the real Gwen brought back to life. But the original Gwen is still dead, as her original persona was killed by Carnage and didn't actually come back, only a clone did.
78	*** Doctor Doom, seemingly killed at the end of Ultimatum by The Thing, was later brought back for the series Ultimate FF, with the one killed in Ultimatum being retconned as an impostor. Then again, given that it's [[CrazyPrepared Doctor Doom]], it's entirely possible that the writers planned for the other Doom to [[ActuallyADoombot be an impostor from the start]].
79	* Creator/ValiantComics, as part of their emphasis on realism, had this policy before the Acclaim era reboot.
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Fan Works]]
83	* ''FanFic/ABrighterDark'': Being set in the VideoGame/FireEmblem universe, magic does certainly exist. However, the author makes it clear that healing magic can only accelerate what the body would have naturally healed over time, and thus death is irreversible. Making the series' AnyoneCanDie much more unnerving.
84	* This is why Esmeralda stays dead at the end of ''WebVideo/AnastasiaQuasimodoWeHitAWall''. Anastasia and Quasimodo's FairyGodmother can't bring dead people back. Magic doesn't work that way.
85	* ''Fanfic/FatesCollide'': Upon finding out Kairi Sisigou is a necromancer, Yang Xiao Long immediately asks if he can bring people back to life, likely intending to bring back her adoptive mother Summer Rose. He sadly informs her nothing can truly revive the dead. What his magic does is communicate with and draw power from the dead.
86	* ''Fanfic/MiraiSMP'': It is specifically noted that not even God can revive the dead, though this is not [[DownplayedTrope entirely true]] -- as one randomly-selected player in the game will be able to unlock the ability to resurrect another player.
87	[[/folder]]
88
89	[[folder:Literature]]
90	* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', you can morph or demorph to heal any injury and most illnesses you may get. But a dead morph is a dead Animorph (unless it's turned off temporarily by a powerful being). This happens to Racheal in the final book.
91	* ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' mentions this as a specific restriction of the gods; they are not permitted to undo death (even though it ''is'' within their power) at the risk of setting off another universal catastrophe. Belgarion, however, is specifically permitted to accomplish this twice: once with a stillborn horse (who becomes important to the plot of ''[[Literature/TheBelgariad The Malloreon]]''), and at the very end with Durnik, fulfilling the prophecy that he would live twice. In the first case, he resurrected Horse in the place of the gods, and in the second he needed the assistance of the Orb of Aldur and the gods as well. Also in both cases, the deceased came back with special powers.
92	* The book ''Fire Sea'' of ''Literature/TheDeathGateCycle'' has a few. The Sartan have begun using necromancy to raise the dead, but the raised dead are not very smart and can do only simple tasks. This ritual can only be done after waiting at least three days after death, for the soul to have time to leave. If the ritual is performed before then, the soul is trapped and a lazar is created. They retain their intelligence but are trapped between life and death and must suffer endless pain and torment. And if those aren't enough reasons to just say no, it's discovered that whenever you bring someone back to life, someone else in the universe dies.
93	* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', despite all the magic running around, Death has thus far been basically final. In fact magic doesn't even seem to be particularly good at healing, with Wizards often still relying on muggle methods. Ghosts and various similar beings exist, but it's explicitly stated that these are left behind by the persons memories and do not contain the persons actual soul. Necromancers (and powerful beings in general) can skirt the rules, like when a Necromancer is able to keep someone alive long enough for them to get medical attention, but when Necromancers actually revive people [[CameBackWrong it's just as mindless zombies.]] The closest to a full subversion is when Harry seems to be dead during ''Literature/GhostStory'', but it turned out to be a DoubleSubversion, his body never actually dies, and his consciousness is eventually able to return to it.
94	* In the ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' universe, only one method has ever been able to do anything even close to bring back the dead: the resurrection stone, one of the three Deathly Hallows. Even then, it only brought back their souls, and the first guy to discover it is said to have been DrivenToSuicide when he realized it couldn't actually resurrect his [[TheLostLenore dead fiancée]]. More conventional magic can regenerate bones from scratch, reshape bodies, or undo petrification, but cannot resurrect anyone. Also [[SoulJar Horcruxes]] can prevent someone from dying, despite them appearing to have been killed, but must be created proactively to prevent death in the first place.
95	* ''Literature/HeWhoFightsWithMonsters'': In theory, resurrection is easy. Souls flee to the deep astral on death; if you manage to draw a soul back to a world, it will instinctively create a new body for itself. The problem is that the Reaper, one of the Great Astral Entities, does not like this, and trying to resurrect people is likely to get its attention. While mortals likely couldn't do this reliably anyway, the Reaper is the only reason the other Great Astral Entities don't just constantly resurrect their followers.
96	* Magic in ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'' can't bring people back. When attempted it simply drains energy from the caster until they die or stop the spell, assuming they were smart enough to [[ExactWords word the spell in such a way that they can stop it]]. It's brought up in ''Inheritance'' that magic can physically repair a dead body, but there is no way to restore their mind, so everyone considers it better to leave them in the ground to avoid [[CameBackWrong certain issues.]]
97	* In the {{Literature/Lensman}} universe, death is final as far as anyone knows, but the Eddorians were worried enough about the Arisians averting the trope that they deliberately did ''not'' kill Kimball Kinnison. Instead, they exiled him to a place they figured to be even harder to return from than death.
98	* In ''Literature/TheLicaniusTrilogy'', anyone can be resurrected with Essence up until the brink of death. Once they have actually died, however, attempting to resurrect them will summon a creature from the Darklands into their body.
99	* In ''Literature/MemorySorrowAndThorn'', the Art cannot bring back the dead. In fact, one character's [[{{Necromantic}} false hope that this is possible]] is what drives the disastrous events of the main story, as it allows him to be tricked into becoming the UnwittingPawn of the BigBad.
100	* ''Literature/ReignOfTheSevenSpellblades'': {{Discussed}} in volume 8. Resurrecting the dead is explicitly impossible, [[JustifiedTrope a natural law]] set down by [[GodIsDead the world's long-deceased god]]. The most magic can do is stave death off for a while: should a mage manage to reach the age of 200, TheGrimReaper will come for them without fail. Cyrus Rivermoore's family kept the ghosts of several past master necromancers in sealed coffins, hoping to craft a [[PocketDimension Grand Aria]] that would hold the Reapers at bay long enough for them to pass on their lost knowledge. By the time of this book, several attempts have failed and only one remains; resurrecting her in an artificial body [[AntiVillain drives his actions]] in volumes 7 and 8.
101	* In the ''Literature/{{Shannara}}'' franchise, characters can be healed from the brink of death. They can survive crippling wounds that would kill a normal person. There are loads of cases of NeverFoundTheBody. But if you actually die? That's all you get. You might come back as a Shade, but even then, you're an immaterial ghost who can spend a maximum of a few minutes in the world of the living before returning to the land of the dead. Coming back really doesn't appear to be an option.
102	* This is something that happens in one of the later books of ''Literature/TheSupervillainySaga'' as the protagonist, as Champion of Death, must decide whether or not to put an end to the BackFromTheDead revolving door that has been affecting both superheroes as well as supervillains.
103	* In ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium'', this only applies to mortal creatures, in most cases Men, aka humans and Hobbits. Unlike most examples of the trope, this is actually seen as a good thing. Well, to [[WhoWantsToLiveForever everyone who's not mortal, at least.]] Specifically, Men are given the gift of death, the ability for their souls to depart from the circles of Arda to somewhere unknown, though the wise reassure us it's definitely to somewhere or something, and not oblivion. As for everyone else, they are sent to the Halls of Mandos where he judges them, and if found worthy, they can be reincarnated. The problem is that while Elves seem like they're getting the benefits while Men get the short end of the stick, they must stay in Arda until the world's end. Elves sometimes call Men the Guests for this reason, to be free of the burdens of a world in decline while Elves, Dwarves, the Valar and Maia must remain where their fates are more uncertain. The exception is Luthien, who managed for the first and only time in existence to beg for her human love Beren not to depart without her. She was made mortal instead, and they died together. Their descendants, the Half-Elven have the choice to become mortal if they so choose. Tuor and Turin are also interesting cases, as Turin's soul is burdened with Morgoth's curse and the many sins in his life, he's doomed to stay in Arda until the end of time where he'll kill Morgoth for good, and Tuor, who sailed to the Undying Lands with his Elven wife Idril, and the legends saying he was counted among them.
104	* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'':
105	** While many things can be Healed with the One Power, death is considered final. Other ailments once considered unhealable have since been Healed, but the series goes out of its way to establish a finality with regards to death. There are a few loopholes that can be abused, but none of them are practical:
106	** All dead souls are eventually reborn as the Wheel of Time spins them out into the Pattern again; this is on a metaphysical level, however, and, a handful exceptions aside, is a largely academical distinction.
107	** [[RetGone Balefire]] erases someone retroactively, causing their actions to have never happened during the time spanned. The strength of the balefire weave affects how far back someone is erased; if timed right, and strong enough, it can prevent the death of someone who died at the hands of the erased person. Mat, Aviendha and a large part of the Aiel force invading Caemlyn are restored to life by balefire stretching back half an hour.
108	** The Dark One can reincarnate people who died, but another body is needed, the procedure is only possible for a very short time after someone dies, and balefire in anything but [[WordOfGod very small amounts]] will render the operation impossible. As The Dark One is the BigBad of the series, this is reserved for the Forsaken - his strongest underlings - and is considered an undesirable way of returning to life.
109	* ''Literature/WildCards'': Wild Cards is a darker superhero universe that avoids the DeathIsCheap elements that plague comic book superhero universes. Creator Creator/GeorgeRRMartin notoriously hates DeathIsCheap and all other superhero tropes that overwrite former stories, such as the CosmicRetcon, and has pleaded to never use them in Wild Cards. When characters die in Wild Cards they stay dead. However, there are examples of characters being assumed dead, but the readers are aware that this isn't actually the case (or are made aware after a relatively short time). There are also rare cases of characters with extreme regenerative powers or android bodies coming back, but this is also telegraphed in advance.
110
111	[[/folder]]
112
113	[[folder:Live Action TV]]
114	* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': Ben Linus sums up the situation very well:
115	--> '''Ben:''' I've seen this Island do miraculous things, I've seen it heal the sick. But I've never, '''ever''' seen anyone come back to life. Dead is Dead. You don't get to come back from that. Not even here.
116	** So when John Locke is seemingly resurrected, Ben is promptly horrified. Turns out he was being used as a LivingBodysuit all along. Sayid Jarrah is also seemingly brought back from the dead, but him being seemingly dead could be just a delayed effect from healing by the Temple pool, which was tempted with by the BigBad.
117	* In ''Series/OnceUponATime'', raising the dead is the one thing that magic can't do. As Rumplestiltskin says several times, "Dead is dead". [[Literature/{{Frankenstein}} Doctor Frankenstein]] is able to raise two people by combining magic and science, or at least [[Film/HammerHorror his world's]] version of [[LightningCanDoAnything science]], but only as tortured, undead monstrosities.
118	* ''Series/{{Raven}}'': Usually, this is a DeathIsCheap series, but this trope comes in full force for the first spin-off, ''Raven: The Island''. Due to BigBad [[SdrawkcabName Nevar]] having a stranglehold over the titular island, Raven cannot help the warriors of this series, and as such, they are not granted a set of lives, nor can Raven bring them back should they fall. As such, failure in this series does remove the warrior from the roster permanently, with the forest spirit Haryad even outright stating that they’ve perished.
119	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': According to the Reaper Billie in Season 11, she plans to enforce this trope in regards to Sam and Dean, who have been resurrected far too many times for her liking. In her words, while the old Death found their repeated resurrections funny, the new Death will ''not'' tolerate it at all:
120	-->'''Billie''': You and Dean dying and coming back again and again. The old Death thought it was funny. But now there's one hard, fast rule in this universe. What lives... dies.
121	[[/folder]]
122
123	[[folder:Roleplay]]
124	* ''Roleplay/DestroyTheGodmodder'' uses this to a certain extent. If an entity you summon gets killed, you cannot re-summon it. Notably {{Averted}} with the players and [=TwinBuilder=] AuthorAvatar, for whom DeathIsCheap.
125	[[/folder]]
126
127	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
128	* ''TabletopGame/{{Alternity}}'''s Gamemaster's Guide notes: "No game mechanic exists for restoring life to the dead." It then goes on to note the FirstLawOfResurrection, and the consequences thereof.
129	* In ''TabletopGame/ArsMagica'' raising the dead (in a manner other than the classic zombie) is a boundary that Hermetic magic can not overcome. The closest thing is a costly ritual that gives the dead body a simulated life. And in the best it dissolves into a puddle or becomes a shadow without a will (the spell name is The Shadow of Life). At worst a demon possesses the body or the creature becomes a psychopathic murderer who hates the living.
130	* In ''TabletopGame/{{Continuum}}'', this is not an inherent law of the setting, but it ''is'' enforced by the Continuum. If your death has been revealed to you, you are expected to willingly go to your death (though you can put this off nearly indefinitely), and any situation in which a spanner dies twice [[TemporalParadox frags the spanner to hell and back]]. However, it's entirely possible to use temporal shenanigans to create another explanation for a death, such as using a clone body or a parallel-universe self. It's illegal for Continuum spanners, but Narcissists do it all the time.
131	* In ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', the titular Exalted, chosen of the gods, are extremely powerful and can literally [[BeyondTheImpossible do the impossible]] but there's still absolutely no way to bring back someone from the dead, except as a ghost. This is clearly stated throughout the game line; a book even broke {{kayfabe}} and explained that it's because being able to come back from the dead as if nothing happened is a drama-killer. However, there's one very specific exception to this rule: if someone you're concerned with dies ''in Hell'' within the last five days, you can beg the Yozi to alter the causality in their world-body so that the person never dies. [[DealWithTheDevil Keep in mind that you just surrendered your life in the past five days to the sadistic, insane god-monsters who hate everyone and everything.]]
132	** When someone tries to bring back the dead, there's a chance that the entity known as the Dark Mother will take notice, giving the corpse new life as one of the Liminal Exalted. However, the Liminal Exalt isn't the person who died, but an entirely new person.
133	* In ''TabletopGame/FabulaUltima'', it is borderline impossible to resurrect the dead. No playable class has the power: the closest you can get is the Hope spell, which is limited to reviving the unconscious. The only ways to bring the dead back to life provided in the core rulebook are a pair of unique magical artefacts: one, the [[OminousObsidianOoze Black Blood]], must be ingested pre-mortem and brings you back as an intelligent undead once you die; the other, the Final Feather, is destroyed forever upon being used to resurrect a single person. This was a deliberate choice by the game's designers to make player character deaths meaningful.
134	* An enforced policy in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', to make death means something[[note]][[GamePlayAndStorySegregation In spite of the fact that the game itself has plenty of resurrection spells]].[[/note]]. This is why characters like Yawgmoth and Urza aren't running around, and why each death in the modern era is all the more tragic. There is one possible exception in Elspeth, given the unique circumstances she is in, but even then Creative tells to hold no breath,
135	* Despite all the other comic book tropes it gleefully embraces, in the ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse'' setting, death is ''not'' [[DeathIsCheap cheap]]. There are only a tiny handful of ways to come back to life, most of which have absolutely mind-blowing costs. In canon, only two characters have come back from the dead: Spite (who had to strike a [[DealWithTheDevil deal with Gloomweaver]], the closest thing to the Devil the setting has) and Mr. Fixer (who was brought back by the unfathomably-powerful Zhu Long and ''still'' CameBackWrong because that's how Zhu Long's powers work).
136	* By the [[MagicAIsMagicA rules of magic]] in ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'', resurrection is impossible. Averted in the 2007 Xbox 360/PC game for gameplay reasons.
137	* The ''Star Wars Roleplaying Game'' lets a trained healer try to revivify someone within seconds of their death, but failing that, the occasional [[OurGhostsAreDifferent spectral blue cameo]] is all they get.
138	* ''TabletopGame/{{Timemaster}}'': If you are a time-traveler, your death ''cannot'' be prevented by time travel. This even applies to temporally-displaced people; one published adventure included a chapter where a general and several soldiers from UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar wound up on a dangerous alternate world/timeline. Normally, if they died, the [=PCs=] could alter events to save the soldiers. But since they aren't in their native time, should they die in that chapter the death is specifically noted to be permanent.
139	* There are very, very few ways to resurrect someone as they were pre-mortem in ''[[TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness The World of Darkness]]'' and all have huge risks involved, slim chances of success and a high chance of [[CameBackWrong coming back wrong]] or driving the person insane. Oh and they're held by groups or societies who are unlikely to share them out, and may try to kill you just for knowing about them.
140	[[/folder]]
141
142	[[folder:Video Games]]
143	* ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' abides by this trope zealously. It doesn't matter how your character dies (critical overkill, deathblow by scratch damage, heart attack while insane, bled out or melted, fell down a trap, starved, cut their finger while digging through debris, suffered lethal damage in the middle of camp), they stay dead. [[note]]A patch allowed ''one'' way to revive the dead, and it's an extremely rare Town Event that can only revive one of your heroes - if it really is them, seeing as they've lost most of their skills and gear.[[/note]]
144	* In the ''Franchise/DragonAge'' series, this is one of the cardinal rules of magic. Even bringing someone back from the brink of death can be [[YourDaysAreNumbered problematic]]. There are walking corpses and other zombies, but these are usually just dead bodies possessed by demons (which is why the [[TheChurch Chantry]] advocates cremation). There ''have'' been two cases when the (very) recently killed people were brought back: Wynne and Evangeline de Brassard in ''[[Literature/{{Asunder}} Dragon Age: Asunder]]'', but in both cases, it was the work of a very powerful spirit, who may or may not be TheMaker himself, and the end result is more akin to LivingOnBorrowedTime: the moment said spirit leaves the resurrected body, the person dies for good. Also, it's possible for a Fade spirit to impersonate someone so well that nobody ever knows the difference, but metaphysically, the original Leliana stays dead if killed in the first game.
145	* In ''VideoGame/{{Evolve}}'' there are Lazarus Devices capable of reanimating the dead by jump-starting the brain, as well as a number of conversations discussing their limitations. While it has some capacity to heal the body while reanimating it if they died from age, if the body is too damaged to function even if the mind is restored, or if they were dead too long, their brain will simply spark back to life before immediately dying again.
146	* The ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games ''usually'' have this. [=KO=]s can be cured with phoenix downs and magic, but death cannot be cured by anything, as shown in the fifth game.
147	* ''VideoGame/FireEmblem''
148	** Any character who has no plot importance (Except in [[AntiFrustrationFeatures Casual Mode]] or during ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade Blazing Blade's]]'' [[ProlongedPrologue tutorial chapters]] or chapter 5x of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones'') will die permanently if they fall in battles. Plot related characters simply retreat, but they still won't be usable for the rest of the game.
149	** With the following exceptions, ignoring Casual Mode, deaths are final:
150	*** The first game, ''Videogame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight,'' and the remake give you a staff that can bring back ''one'' slain party member. As of the remake, most players use it to perform the Tiki/Falchion Bonus Chapter trick.
151	*** The second game, ''Videogame/FireEmblemGaiden,'' was much more lax, having springs on the map that revived characters, but they had limited uses.
152	*** [[VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar The fourth game]] also has a one use staff (that can be repaired for a very hefty price) that revived the dead.
153	*** [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade The seventh game]] has a PlotlineDeath that is later reversed by the most powerful dark sorcerer in Elibe.
154	*** [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones The eighth game]] also features Plotline Deaths that are reversed through necromancy (albeit [[CameBackWrong with dire consequences for all involved]]).
155	*** [[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates The fourteenth game]] also has a one-use staff to revive a dead character, with the catch that you cannot select who to revive; whoever was the latest to die ''in the chapter you use it'' comes back.
156	* This is true for ''VideoGame/HoshigamiRuiningBlueEarth'' until late in the game unless you can craft a Coinferm that can resurrect the dead.
157	* ''VideoGame/OneChance'' goes beyond the normal definition and tries to prevent the player from even restarting the game.
158	* Despite ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternity'' being a high-magic setting, there is no spell that can resurrect the dead so any companions who die are dead for good. However, {{reincarnation}} happens naturally to everyone. There are ways to ''cheat'' this, but they tend to come with [[HorrorHunger drawbacks]] and usually end up with the soul being [[AndIMustScream trapped forever in a completely-decayed pile of bonedust]]. Other attempts to cheat or manipulate the system are heavily intertwined with the game's plot.
159	* In ''{{Franchise/Pokemon}}'', there are admittedly few cases of this actually happening, but the fans and players came up with a challenge called the [[SelfImposedChallenge Nuzlocke Challenge]]. Basically, every Pokémon who faints, you must release it into the wild or shove it into a PC never to be used again, even if it's your starter. The reason being because this Pokémon is "dead." That shiny Pokémon you're so attached to faints of poison? [[Franchise/StarTrek It's dead, Jim.]]
160	* Most RogueLike games. If any character dies, including the one you're controlling, they're gone forever. While there are typically magic items of resurrection, they usually take place right after "death", making them more of a saving throw.
161	* An indie game on Platform/{{Steam}}, called ''RussianRoulette: One Life'', allowed the user to virtually play the titular game with the twist that, if you lose, you will ''never be able to play again.'' As in the game in real life, you get exactly one death and it's for keeps![[note]]There was a DownloadableContent option offered to pay $5 and attempt the game more than once-- as a ghost, with your score on a separate leaderboard from the main game.[[/note]]
162	* As soon as someone dies in ''VideoGame/SweetHome1989'', that's it, and they take their personal item to the grave with them, complicating things even more. Predictably, as soon as all of the FiveManBand are dead, GameOver.
163	* Playing any of the ''VideoGame/XCom'' series of games on the Ironman setting effectively turns the game into this. You do not get to save or load data. The game restricts you to one save file per game and automatically autosaves after every turn and every time you exit to the menu. Any mistakes, deaths, and losses are effectively set in stone. Lost an elite psionic SuperSoldier to a random lucky alien grenade? Too bad, commander, he's dead and gone, no do-overs. You'll have to try and train another.
164	[[/folder]]
165
166	[[folder:Webcomics]]
167	* ''Webcomic/ClanOfTheCats'' goes with the EquivalentExchange version: either someone has to die, or the world has to be changed for the better on a very broad scale; the one time it was accomplished was by ending a [[ElvesVsDwarves magical cold war]].
168	* The world of ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan'' doesn't have any way to resurrect the dead. In the Maltak arc, Necromancer Jacob Deegan claims that, with a little research into some Orc magic, he'll be able to pull it off (though other comics heavily imply he's lying). Thus far, the only ways to "cheat" this are as an Obi-Wan-style spirit advisor (Klo Tark), and by becoming a demon (Siegfried), neither of which are really preferable as you're still dead. Necromancers are the one real exception, as their mastery of death allows them to come back from fatal wounds, but this could be seen as a way to cheat death, rather than revert it.
169	* This is a rule in ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}'' with the holy Scripture saying that when someone dies there is no way to return. However, the Scripture also ''forbids'' people from coming back to life, as though it were possible. This causes some confusion regarding Wanda's new [[BackFromTheDead Decryption powers]] from using a Divine artifact and whether what she's doing is heretical (by violating the commandment) or not (because her use of an Arkentool implies the Titans permit her actions).
170	* At the start of the third incarnation of ''[[Webcomic/{{Eightland}} Road Waffles]]'', [[NoFourthWall the author]] warns the main character that AnyoneCanDie at any time, and no one will come back, killing some talking birds to make the point. True to his word, she dies anticlimactically about two-thirds of the way into the strip, trying ([[SenselessSacrifice and failing]]) to save her original {{Foil}} while the rest of the cast regroups.
171	* In ''Webcomic/{{Shadownova}}'' death is commonplace, usually quite painful and always permanent.
172	[[/folder]]
173
174	[[folder:Web Video]]
175	* Invoked by ''WebVideo/SomeJerkWithACamera'': One of his issues with ''Shrek 4-D'' is that it violates this rule of the ''{{Franchise/Shrek}}'' franchise. By having Lord Farquaad be the only character to come back to life, in a series where ghosts exist nowhere else, it cheapens the impact of his death. He illustrates how much this would mess with the canon of other films by joking about a ghostly [[{{WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast}} Gaston]] ([[{{PunnyName}} Ghoston]]!) show up and harass Belle and The Prince at their wedding.
176	[[/folder]]
177
178	[[folder:Western Animation]]
179	* The Genie in ''{{WesternAnimation/Aladdin}}'' lists trying to bring back the dead as one of the three things he can't do. He implies that he ''can'' bring someone back, but with [[CameBackWrong unpleasant results]] ("it's not a pretty picture, I don't like doing it!"). ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'' and other ''Aladdin'' movies show that there are few ways to use LoopholeAbuse with a few of the other genie rules -- for instance, a genie can't kill anybody, but they could put them into a situation where it's very likely that they would die. Also, Aladdin gets around using one of his three wishes by tricking Genie into doing something without technically wishing for it. However, the plot point that a genie can't revive the dead remains solid throughout the entire saga, as it's the one rule that never gets worked around or broken.
180	* A rare case of this applying to TimeTravel; in ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'', if someone dies, changing the events leading to that death will not save them. That said, no one ever dies in a manner time travel could have prevented, so it's unclear what would happen if they'd tried.
181	* [[ZigzaggedTrope Zigzagged]] with ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. Characters can be and occasionally are brought back from the dead, but death is the only thing which cannot be reversed by NegativeContinuity. The only characters to have come back from the dead are James Woods (who got transfused with someone else's life force), Kevin Swanson (who [[FakingTheDead faked his death]]), Brian (whose death was erased via TimeTravel), Peter (due to being [[PalsWithJesus friends with the Grim Reaper]]), and Meg, the only character to have come back via UnexplainedRecovery.
182	* An Egyptian man in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' episode "Grief" enlists the help of [[QuirkyMinibossSquad The Pack]] (minus [[HeelFaceTurn Dingo]]) in a bid to summon [[Myth/EgyptianMythology Anubis]] to bring back his deceased son, who had been killed in a car accident two years prior. It takes absorbing Anubis and becoming an avatar of death for him to learn that this cannot be done, and so he performs a HeroicSacrifice in order to save all present from the collapsing tomb; it's implied that he didn't survive.
183	-->'''Goliath:''' If there's any justice in this world or the next, he's with his son, now.
184	* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime''
185	** Stated by WordOfGod. So far every death has stuck, since the mindless [[NonHumanUndead robot zombies]] don't count as being "alive", and ''definitely'' don't count as being who they were back when they were alive. ([[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Terrorcon_%28Prime%29 "Whatever that thing was, it wasn't Cliffjumper..."]]) Fans are taking bets on whether or not this will hold true regarding Optimus Prime's [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_many_deaths_of_Optimus_Prime tradition]] of dying and resurrecting (sometimes more than once) in every continuity.
186	** So far they've sidestepped the issue by having Optimus' traditional HeroicSacrifice result in LaserGuidedAmnesia.
187	** He came very close to fading to gunmetal gray for good in the early part of the ''Beast Hunters'' season, but Smokescreen [[RefusalOfTheCall Refused The Call]] to take up the [[MacGuffin Matrix of Leadership]], choosing to restore Optimus instead (after all, Prime [[MerchandiseDriven does have new toys out]]).
188	** Subverted in the finale movie - after dying in the last episode, Megatron is resurrected by Unicron due to the connection between them created by Megatron's rampant usage of Dark Energon (aka Unicron's very blood) which also [[BarredFromTheAfterlife prevented him from returning to the Allspark like Transformers are supposed to]]. He survives even after Unicron's essence is removed, but RedemptionEarnsLife and he leaves for parts unknown. Optimus ends the series by giving up his life to fully restore Cybertron, so it's unlikely he'll be back...
189	** And then averted in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersRobotsInDisguise2015'' when Prime gives death the middle finger once more.
190	[[/folder]]

Context Main / AllDeathsFinal